Study	Reason for exclusion
Abikoff 2004	RCT of children with ADHD. Three arms: methylphenidate plus psychosocial intervention versus methylphenidate alone versus methylphenidate plus attentional control. Excluded because psychosocial intervention involves social skills training involving direct intervention with the children
Aman 2010	RCT. Children diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorders, not ADHD
Anastopoulos 1993	Appeared to be RCT or at least quasi‐RCT of parent training versus wait list control for children diagnosed with DSM‐III‐R ADHD, based on parents' responses to interview questions; in fact, study not even quasi‐randomised (this was confirmed by personal contact with investigator) ‐ "subjects were in groups as a function of when they requested services" (Anastopoulous 2009)
Arnold 2007	Uncontrolled intervention study ‐ participants were a convenience sample of four adolescents and families (part of Masters' thesis)
Baker‐Ericzen 2010	Review article (focused moreover on disruptive behaviour disorders rather than ADHD)
Bandsma 1997	This three‐armed, apparently nonrandomised intervention study involves 'group mediation therapy' with three groups which appear to be clinically different from one another (those with clinically defined ADHD, those with borderline ADHD symptoms, and a 'norm group'). Triallists state that the study was not designed with a control group'. Furthermore, the nature of the intervention (mediation therapy) appears to involve direct work with children
Barkley 1992	RCT of youths aged 12‐18 with ADHD. Three 'family' interventions were compared, none of which met inclusion criteria (interventions consisted of behavior management training; problem‐solving and communication training; structural family therapy)
Barkley 2000	RCT of children with 'disruptive behaviour'; participants were too young or of insecure diagnosis (screening test involved parent report only) to be included within this review
Barkley 2001	RCT of adolescents with ADHD. Both interventions were 'active' and involved family therapies, which involved both parents and direct work with adolescents, using Behaviour Management Training and Problems Solving Communication Training
Barkley 2002b	RCT of preschool children lacking formal a formal diagnosis of ADHD at entry into the trial. They were randomised to parent training, special kindergarten enrichment classroom only, the combined treatment condition and a no treatment condition
Beyer 1994	RCT (conducted in course of a PhD). Age range problematic (3‐11) (separate data not available for children over 5, according to the author); also formal diagnosis of ADHD lacking in some participants
Bogle 2007	RCT wherein children (only some of whom had a formal diagnosis of ADHD) were randomised to one of two active treatments, i.e., a 'Challenging Horizons Programme' plus 'Academic Skills Building Workshop' or 'Challenging Horizons Programme' only. This intervention does not meet inclusion criteria as direct interventions with the children were used and there is no no‐treatment control group
Bor 2002	RCT wherein participants were aged between 36 and 48 months and had no formal diagnosis of ADHD. Participants were randomised to enhanced behavioural family intervention, standard family behavioural intervention or wait list control group
Chacko 2007	RCT of children with ADHD. Excluded because the intervention involved direct work with the children in both the “traditional parent training program” and the “STEPP”
Chronis 2004	Intervention study involving children with ADHD using a BAB design to assess effects of delivery then withdrawal of a behavioural modification programme involving direct work with the children. No true control group
Chronis 2006	RCT involving mothers of children with ADHD, a population known to be at risk of depression. The 'Coping With Depression Course' was not assessed to meet inclusion criteria for parent training. Child behaviour was, however, assessed, as well as maternal functioning, and ADHD‐related family impairment
Connell 1997	RCT of oppositional preschoolers to parent training or waitlist control. Excluded for both age and lack of ADHD diagnosis
Corkum 1999	RCT of methylphenidate plus parent training versus methylphenidate plus parent support. No outcomes for children. Additional note: investigators confirmed PT and PS support, attendance was very low Schachar 1997 supplies additional information concerning this study
Corkum 2005	RCT involving children diagnosed with ADHD DSM‐IV‐TR and aged between 5‐12 years old. Both interventions were active (parent training verus parent training combined with teacher support) this therefore does not meet inclusion criteria
Corrin 2003	RCT wherein children with a 'younger cohort' of children (aged from 4 years up); not all diagnoses secure. Both active interventions involved direct work with children (child training alone was compared with parent plus child training). No parent training alone; no no‐treatment control
Coughlin 2009	Controlled (and possibly randomised) trial of children with "significant behavioural problems" but not necessarily an ADHD diagnosis, within an intervention or TAU group. The intervention group was flexible, involving a video‐modelling treatment including parent training but also direct work with children at times (thus not meeting this inclusion criterion as well)
Cummings 2008	RCT of children aged 26‐72 months without formal diagnoses of ADHD, allocated to one of two active parent training groups which therefore does not meet inclusion criteria due to diagnosis, age and lack of eligible control group
Danforth 1998	Uncontrolled intervention study of children with ODD and/or ADHD using a multiple baseline design
Dubbs 2008	Intervention study involving direct work with children without formal diagnosis of ADHD with children part of intervention
Dubey 1978	This early paper (Dubey 1978) described "six clinical programs and one controlled, experimental program". The latter was a small RCT; however, participants had been recruited without a formal ADHD diagnosis, using only the Werry Weiss Peters scale, a screening measure with low sensitivity and lacking measures of impairment (regarded as insufficient for secure diagnosis (Daley 2009). Dubey 1983 reports on a subset of data from the original paper
Ellis 2009	Not an intervention study but a study looking at parents of children with ADHD and considering parents' own ADHD symptoms in relation to their parenting practices
Ercan 2005	Intervention study of children with ADHD plus CD or ADHD plus ODD involving combined modality treatment (parent training plus methylphenidate) which was not randomised or even quasi‐randomised (participants self selected into treatment and control groups)
Fabiano 2006	RCT of children with ADHD; participants were randomised to either parent training for fathers only or parent training plus sports activities for fathers and children. Although a de facto wait list control group was created, recruitment was not contemporaneous and therefore not part of the original randomisation (note: principal investigator noted with disappointment his ethics committee's refusal to allow him to create a contemporaneous no‐treatment control group)
Fagan Rogers 2009	Not an intervention study but an investigation of the role of parental involvement in children's academic progress
Gibbs 2008	Controlled before and after intervention involving parents who chose (or chose not to) participate in a parenting programme whilst their children (diagnosed with a range of disruptive and emotional disorders but not necessarily ADHD) attended a health camp where a psychosocial intervention was delivered. This study is excluded both for reasons of sequence generation (self selection) and lack of adequate diagnosis
Grimm 2006	RCT of children with conduct problems (mixed, not all with ADHD) with three active treatment arms, each a variant of a parenting programme ( no no‐treatment control group)
Guo 2008	RCT conducted in China of children with ADHD. Translation indicates that the intervention involved parent training in combination 'family meetings' (which appear to have involved a chance to share experiences and 'express emotions') as well as home visits during which clinicians engaged in direct work with the children. Study excluded because of direct work with the children
Gustis 2007	Randomised study of parent training versus control; but participants had ODD or ADHD; subset data not available so excluded on the basis of no formal diagnosis of ADHD (author confirmed that separate data were not obtainable)
Hall 2003	RCT involving children with ADHD, excluded because of the three arms (child training only, child/parent training and child/parent training plus home/school‐based behavioural consultation) none involved an eligible 'no treatment' group
Hauth‐Charlier 2009	Review article; not an intervention study
Hautmann 2009	An intervention study, but with no control group. Inclusion criteria "did not depend on meeting a defined threshold of symptom severity" but simply that a child over the age of three had an externalising problem
Heriot 2008	RCT of 0.3mg/kg methylphenidate + parent training programme versus 0.3mg/kg methylphenidate + parent support group versus placebo + parent training programme versus placebo + parent support group. Participants were diagnosed with ADHD (DSM‐IV) based on rating scales completed by parents and teachers rather than clinicians and also slightly too young for inclusion within this review ‐ range 3.0‐5.9 years, mean = 4.77
Horn 1991	RCT involving children ADHD comparing high and low doses of methylphenidate alone and in combination with behavioural parent plus child self control instruction. Study excluded because of direct work with children in parent training arm and lack of an adjunctive or no treatment arm
Isler 2003	RCT of children with formal diagnosis of ADHD; however, study lacks eligible control group. All interventions were 'active': participants were randomised either to a child group training or a parent training plus child training plus home and school training. This therefore does not meet inclusion criteria as there is no "no treatment control group" and both interventions involved direct work with children
Jones 2008	RCT of parent training group vs waiting list. Excluded due to children being underage (36‐48 months) and lacking secure diagnoses of ADHD
Larsson 2008	RCT design acceptable; parent training programme and controls acceptable; outcomes acceptable. Diagnosis remained difficult to assess, even after personal communication with investigators and after reading multiple publications. According to an early publication, participants were "those who received a possible or definitive diagnosis of ODD and/or CD after assessment after all clinically referred children were first screened by means of the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI) using the 90th percentile as a cut‐off score according to Norwegian norms. Children who attained such a cut‐off score or higher were subsequently interviewed by one of three trained interviewers using the KIDDIE‐SADS" (Drugli, p 393). Subsequent contact with Dr Drugli suggested that subset ADHD children were similarly diagnosed (i.e. by trained interviewers but not specialists). In the paper published by Larsson et al (2008) authors report subset for "definitive" ADHD participants; but in the paper by Fossum et al (2008) authors admit as a limitation of the study that "the assessment of clinical levels of ADHD did not meet the formal criteria of a diagnosis."
Lauth 2007	RCT with three arms of children with behavioural problems, a subset of whom had ADHD (data not reported separately). The trial compared parent training with parent training combined with behavioural training for children compared with a parent support group in which "emotional and social themes" identical to those in the other groups were discussed. After obtaining a partial translation of the paper we adjudged that the latter group was more than an 'attentional control' (as other similar groups had been constructed in other studies) in that a 'script' of behavioural issues, mapping on to the training in other groups, had been provided. ADHD was in addition not the focus of the study
Lavigne 2008	Three‐armed RCT focusing on very young children with a diagnosis of OCD. Participants were too young for this review: "Study participants were children ages 3.0–6.11 years and their parents" (average age 4.6 years, SD 1/4 1.0)
Markie‐Dadds 2006	RCT with three arms (enhanced self‐directed behavioural family intervention, a self help program and a waitlist control) for children with conduct problems (not ADHD specifically). Children were aged 2 to 6 years (mean 3.9)
McGoey 2005	RCT of an early intervention group versus a community treatment group (which may have involved parent training). Child participants were aged 3 to 5 years and 'at risk' for ADHD, which does not meet inclusion criteria
Miranda 2006	Study was quasi‐experimental and not randomised. A pharmacological intervention (methylphenidate) was compared to a psychosocial intervention (programme in the classroom ‐ excluded because intervention involved direct work with children without formal diagnosis of ADHD) versus a control group
Molina 2008	RCT. Participants (middle‐school children diagnosed with ADHD) were randomised to a 10 week programme or a community comparison. Intervention does not meet inclusion criteria as it involved direct work with the children
Montiel 2002	RCT. Participants "diagnosed as having ADHD, identified in ADHD screening days" were randomised to parent training or medication group; does not meet intervention inclusion criteria as no comparison of parent training versus no parent training group
Morawska 2009	RCT of Triple‐P Positive Training programme versus a waitlist control. Children involved may have had behavioural problems and outcomes included hyperactivity, but children did not necessarily have ADHD; entry criteria specified only that they be identified as "gifted"
MTA 1999	Complex large scale RCT; intervention included direct work with the children: "Behavioral treatment included parent training, child‐ focused treatment, and a school‐based intervention organized and integrated with the school year. The parent training, based on work by Barkley and Forehand and MacMahon,37 involved 27 group (6 families per group) and 8 individual sessions per family. It began weekly on randomization, concurrent with biweekly teacher consultation; both were tapered over time. The same therapist‐ consultant conducted parent training and teacher consultation, with each therapist‐consultant having a case‐ load of 12 families." (pp 1074‐1075)
Nixon 2001	RCT involving children too young for inclusion in this review (aged 3 to 5 years) with behavioural disturbances were randomised to an intervention involving both parent training in behavioural management and direct work with children ('parent‐child interaction therapy' or PCIT), versus wait list control, compared with a 'nondisturbed' preschool sample
Nixon 2003	RCT of PCIT (see above) where child participants had ODD with no diagnosis of ADHD and, as above, intervention involved direct work with children
O'Leary 1976	RCT in which participants were randomly assigned to a programme teaching parental behavioural management group or a control group. Children were included if they had extreme scores greater or equal to 15 on Connors teacher rating scale, which does not meet diagnosis inclusion criteria for ADHD
Odom 1996	RCT of what was described as a primarily "educational intervention" compared to a no treatment control group. Participants were mothers of children aged 5 to 11 years diagnosed with ADHD by an MDT evaluation. No child outcomes were measured, only those of the mother (knowledge of ADHD, willingness to have their child medicated and willingness to seek counselling, parenting sense of competence) were reported, which does not meet inclusion criteria
Pisterman 1989	RCT of eligible parent training intervention versus control; however, participants included parents of children aged between 3‐6 years without formal ADHD diagnosis (diagnosis made by parent structured screening interview by PhD psychologist) which does not meet inclusion criteria (Pisterman 1992b reports follow‐up)
Pisterman 1992a	RCT of eligible parent training intervention versus control; however, participants included parents of children aged between 46.42‐52.41 months, and again without formal ADHD diagnosis (diagnosis made by parent or teacher on SNAP checklist (Pelham 1982) which does not meet inclusion criteria (Pisterman 1992b reports follow‐up)
Pollard 1983	Pre‐post design of both methylphenidate and parent training on the behaviour of three 'hyperkinetic boys'
Reeves 2009	Not a randomised controlled trial. Review article
Salbach 2005	Controlled study, but neither randomised or quasi‐randomised, comparing parent training plus medication (methylphenidate) plus consultation versus medication plus consultation alone for parents of children with ADHD. Excluded because participants chose their intervention groups themselves
Sanders 2000a	RCT. Participants were randomised to enhanced behavioural family intervention, standard behavioural family intervention, self‐directed behavioural family intervention or wait list control. Participants had no formal diagnosis of ADHD. Participants were aged 3 years old (between 36 and 48 months ‐ mean age was 3.39yrs) which does not meet inclusion criteria. McLennan 2001 summarises results of this study
Sanders 2000b	RCT. Participants were randomly assigned to a behavioural family intervention or cognitive behavioural family intervention which does not meet inclusion criteria as there is no eligible control group. Participants had no formal ADHD diagnosis, only 2 children had ADHD based on a structured interview with the mother using DSM‐IV criteria. Participants were aged 3‐9 years (mean = 4.39) which does not meet inclusion criteria
Scahill 2006	RCT of parent training versus no treatment control. Focus of study was not ADHD, but disruptive behaviour in children with tics. Investigators recruited children with comorbid tic and disruptive behaviour disorders from a specialised tic disorders clinic. They specifically excluded children with ADHD not receiving medication. This yielded a subset of children with comorbid, medicated ADHD.
Schoppe‐Sullivan 2009	Not a randomised controlled trial (although indexed in MEDLINE as such). Observational study investigated how co‐parenting affected children's externalizing behaviour and attempts at "effortful control", as rated by children's teachers and mothers
Scott 2001a	Multicentre RCT involving parenting groups for children who were recruited for antisocial behaviour rather than ADHD. "Eligible children were all those aged 3‐8 years who were referred for antisocial behaviour to their local multidisciplinary child and adolescent mental health service" (p 2). From the text, it would appear investigators strenuously sought to exclude ADHD, as they listed as exclusion criteria for their trial: "clinically apparent major developmental delay, hyperkinetic syndrome [ICD‐10 criteria for inclusion within this review] or any other condition requiring separate treatment". ADHD is not mentioned in the published study. Personal contact with the author (Scott 2011) concerning a different study (Scott 2010) led to a disclosure that approximately half the study's participants subsequently proved to meet diagnostic criteria for ADHD (although the age of such children remains unclear) and data were generously provided. However, due to concerns that because ADHD was far from being the focus of this study (wherein recruitment included only aggressive children and [initially at least] attempted to excluded any child with a diagnosis or treatment for ADHD), we decided these data do not meet inclusion criteria
Scott 2010	RCT involving a mixed intervention programme including aspects of Webster‐Stratton's Incredible Years and aspects of the SPOKES projects in which parents read with their children, to promote literacy. Participants (all aged 6 years) were screened for a range of risk factors for antisocial behaviour, low reading ability, conduct problems and 'ADHD symptoms' via the PACS. Thus, a true diagnosis for ADHD of children was not made (nor was it the focus of the intervention)
Sonuga‐Barke 2001	RCT wherein participants were randomised to parent training, parent counselling and support or wait list control. Children were 3 years old, which does not meet inclusion criteria. Participants had no formal diagnosis of ADHD, diagnoses was based on scores on WWP and PACS, which does not meet inclusion criteria. No child outcomes, which does not meet inclusion criteria. Baldwin 2001 summarises aspects of this study and Sonuga Barke 2002 provides additional data
Sonuga‐Barke 2004	RCT wherein participants were randomised to parent training or wait list control. Children were 3 years old, which does not meet inclusion criteria. Participants were diagnosed with 'preschool ADHD' which does not meet inclusion criteria
Springer 2004	RCT with three active intervention arms, all involving direct work with the child. Age range and diagnosis of ADHD acceptable
Taylor 1998	Controlled but not randomised nor quasi‐randomised study comparing Webster‐Stratton's Parents and Children Series parenting groups, the eclectic approach treatment or wait list control. Allocation not randomised, investigators wrote, in order "to allow urgent families, and families who had already waited a long time for treatment, to remain in the study". Children had behavioural issues but not necessarily a diagnosis of ADHD, aged 3‐8 years old.
Treacy 2005	RCT focused on parental stress alone, in which participants were randomly assigned to parent stress management training or wait list control. Children were diagnosed with DSM‐IV ADHD. Children were aged 6‐15 years. No outcomes involved children. Outcomes measured included only Parenting Stress Index (PSI) (Abidin 1995) Parent Scale (Arnold 1993), Parental Locus of Control Scale (PLOC) (Campis 1986)
van der Oord 2008	RCT wherein participants with ADHD were randomised to methylphenidate or methylphenidate plus behaviour therapy. There was a direct clinical intervention involving the children: "The multimodal behavior therapy integrated family based and school‐based interventions with cognitive behavior therapy of the child" (p 50)
Waschbusch 2005	Cluster RCT targeting disruptive children. Diagnosis of ADHD was unclear for all children and all active interventions ('universal' school wide intervention; targeted school intervention; targeted home intervention; control group) involved direct work with the child
Weinberg 1999	Single group intervention study (pre‐post test measures) of parent training for parents of children with ADHD. No control group
Wolraich 2005	RCT in which participants (mean age 7.41, of whom only a portion had a secure ADHD diagnosis) were randomly assigned to a treatment or a control group, however the intervention (which focused on improving communication between parents, teachers and primary care providers) and did not meet inclusion criteria as the treatment group did not consist of true parent training